Santa Clara Basketball

The Santa Clara Broncos are currently in second place in the WCC following a five-game win streak.

Next week they travel to War Memorial Gymnasium for a grudge match with the University of San Francisco Dons. During their last contest, the Broncos were topped 74-67 despite taking an 11-point lead into halftime.

I sat down with Santa Clara head coach Kerry Keating to discuss the remainder of the Broncos' WCC schedule.

You have a four-game winning streak in the WCC, five overall. What did the win against Gonzaga do for you?

All the wins did something for us because [his players] have done a good job of taking it one game at a time. In hindsight it’s given us a little bit of confidence, but the Portland game was even more important as evidenced, obviously, with what happened against St. Mary’s (Portland beat St. Mary’s 85-70 in Oregon). St. Mary’s beat Gonzaga (73-71), albeit on the road and lost at Portland so it’s a tricky proposition when you get hyped up for one game.

Our guys are doing a good job of taking it one game at a time and focusing in and taking care of that before they move on and also not looking back. To be honest with you, that’s almost so far in the past you can’t even worry about it because you have to worry about San Francisco in our next game.

How are you going to approach that game in San Francisco?

The benefit of playing these teams a second time is that we played them all once before. We had an 11-point lead at halftime, I was disappointed that we lost that lead at home, so we have a little bit to get back, but San Francisco is playing well too. We’re both tied for second so there’s a lot riding on in beyond just trying to win the next game.

Our preparation will be the same. Our focus will be the same. Obviously we’ve had a chance to watch them play in the six games since which will give us a better idea of what they’ve been doing.

What message would that send to the rest of the WCC if you got that win in San Francisco?

I don’t know. A lot of teams are right there. Portland and Gonzaga are going to be right behind because someone has to be 5-3 at the end of that game. Obviously Saint Mary’s whether they win or not are going to be at the top. It’s going to take a little while before any separation happens because it seems to be pretty clogged up there. We just need to do our part and not worry about anyone else.

How do you become the top team in the WCC?

You have to keep winning. We need to keep doing the things we’ve done to get ourselves to this point: continue to work hard, stay solid academically, stay solid with our bodies, and continue to exercise gameplans and practice time we have—take advantage of it. We have two days to get a good practice in before we head over to War Memorial.

The message stays the same, it shouldn’t change, because it wasn’t any different when we got to that point. We have to keep marching forward and do what we do.

You are giving up 70.8 points a game. What do you need to do to crack down on defense?

Our defense has actually been better. Saint Mary’s skewed it a little bit because they played us so well and shot us so well. In the stretch we’ve had recently we’ve played pretty solid defense—we lead the league in steals [167 total, 7.3 average per game]—that has been the way we’ve been able to overcome some of the percentages that are high and get some more possessions back by pressuring the ball.

We’ve done a pretty good job on defense, but now we need to do a little bit better because there’s no secrets. Everyone knows what we’ve done now having played in the league once through already.

Do you think you’ll get more attendance now that the WCC is more competitive?

I hope so. I hope that everyone wants to come support this team that has put itself in a good position. It’ll be hard to do, but it may be a little bit of a push and a little bit easier for us to get the continued student support that has been so good and try to make Leavey a tough place to play no matter who’s playing.

Two years ago Saint Mary’s got snubbed in the at-large bidding for the NCAA Tournament, in my opinion. It seems like you need to win the WCC Tournament to get in. Do you believe you can win March’s tournament in Las Vegas?

I think Saint Mary’s is in the tournament, no matter what happens, unless they have a colossal collapse. They’ve been playing for a seed now. They’ve done enough and have played a good enough schedule and I think they’ve earned that. Obviously, we don’t make those decisions, but time will tell and I think they’ll be in a good position.

But it’s been hard, because of the balance in our league, to separate for an at-large type of situation so obviously it puts a lot of pressure on that tournament to get what is always that automatic bid.

For years the WCC has gone through Gonzaga. Do you think Saint Mary’s has taken control of the league?

Not yet. They haven’t won the regular season yet. I think you have to win the regular season consistently for it to go through anything and Gonzaga has still done that and obviously Saint Mary’s is in that position now, but is not that far away from anyone to get that.

It takes some time for it to go through you and Gonzaga has definitely done that.

You have recruited people from all over North America and overseas. How has your team come together as a unit over the course of the season?

They share the common denominator of being really good, motivated students. [They are] motivated players that want to win, and guys that want to get better, [and] that really care about each other and respect what each other is doing to help each other become better players, better people and better teammates. We work on that every day and our guys have done a fantastic job of that.

They’ve maintained their over 3.0 GPAs as a team and that’s a testament to their work ethic off the floor and now we’re starting to see it over on to the floor by way of some wins.

We can’t settle, we can’t get complacent, we can’t pretend that we’ve got it all figured out and that we’re good. We got to keep moving on and know that we’ve probably gotten some more attention from some folks by winning some games so we’ve got to be ready to go each and every time out and that starts on Saturday against San Francisco.

On Thursday, for the first time since 2001, Santa Clara defeated West Coast Conference rival Gonzaga. Their 85-71 win was the first for Keating, who is 1-8 against the Bulldogs, and means that the maligned coach has defeated every team in the WCC.

As expected, Kevin Foster used a late game three to drill the final nail in Gonzaga’s coffin.

“I was just full of excitement because I haven’t won against Gonzaga in three years,” said Foster, who hit a career high 36 points against the Zags.

Foster played a complete game. He had two aesthetically pleasing steals in key moments during the game while remaining disciplined.

His first foul came with 1:25 left in the game.

“It’s just a constant effort,” said Foster. “[Just] being solid on defense and not fouling because they need me on the court and I’m not going to be as valuable if I pick up cheap fouls.”

Forward Marc Trasolini, a junior who has played with Foster since his freshman year, was elaborate in his praise for his teammate.

“He really stepped up,” said the Canadian forward. “We needed him so badly and he just performed above everyone’s expectations and carried us on his shoulders tonight.”

Foster also received admiration from Gonzaga senior guard Steven Gray.

“When a guy has taken 20 threes in a game before they’re going to get the guy shots and they do a great job finding him and really setting screens on their guy,” said Gray. “You can definitely see that’s something they spend a lot of time on.”

Against USF the Broncos put up 37 threes and played soft inside. In a similar big-game atmosphere against Gonzaga, Santa Clara forced the ball inside and shot eight for 20 from beyond the arc.

“The biggest thing about that…is that he was 7-9 on the free throw line in the second half,” added Keating. “If you’re a shooter…and it’s not working out in the flow of the game you’ve got to get to the free throw line.”

Santa Clara, the first team in the country to make 300 free throws, got to the line 33 times against Gonzaga, shooting 12 more free throws than they did against USF.

“It’s about time,” said Keating in a press conference after the game. “We’ve had three really good games with them and had some unique circumstances in all three of them so we wanted to make sure we did everything we could do so that wouldn’t affect the game.”

The win may be a watershed moment for Bronco basketball.

“If you want to establish yourself in this league, Gonzaga has established you have to do it through them,” said Keating. “They’ve withstood the test of time and set the [bar]…and that bar is pretty high.

“[It’s] a good start knowing if you’re going to take a stab at it that you can beat them.”

Gonzaga head coach Mark Few appeared unfazed after the loss.

“We’ve had teams every year that have pressed us and pushed us and we’ve lost games,” said Few, whose team has been in the WCC Tournament final every year since 1999. “We’ve had several years when we’ve been fortunate enough to go undefeated [in the conference], but we’ve dropped games before so this is nothing different.”

Before this game there was no expectation to win against big-name programs. Keating’s teams had a reputation of losing momentous games in the last few minutes.

“We’re going through stages of the building process,” said Keating, who has yet to have a winning season in three years as the head coach as the Broncos.

“To build a program takes a long time at this level. With high academic restrictions and not as many resources as other teams, but we don’t make excuses for that. We get what we get and take pride in that. It takes time.”

The announced attendance of 4017, 500 under capacity, indicates that there was limited expectation that this team was going to win.

“There were a lot of students here,” said Keating, a nod to the packed Ruff Rider section. “Hopefully we can build on that so everyone here knows that even though Gonzaga only plays here once, we play here a lot more than that.”

Keating and the Broncos must build upon this win. If they run the conference they will enter the WCC Tournament with momentum and could potentially gain national recognition.

If they stumble to the finish the win will be passed off as a flash in the pan.

Tomorrow they get their next opportunity to prove themselves when Portland visits for a 3:00 p.m. matinee contest.

What initially seemed like a sure win for Santa Clara transformed into desperation for the Broncos Saturday night. Racing back in the final minutes of the game, Santa Clara fought to start West Coast Conference play with a winning record, but the University of San Francisco prevailed, 74-67.

Trailing 65-57 with just over three minutes left to play, Santa Clara sophomore guard Kevin Foster pulled up for one of his signature threes. Seconds after it left his hands, the ball casually drifted through the net; the fibers whipped together as the ball fell to the floor.

Foster's three consecutive three-point shots dropped within a minute and a half of each other and gave Santa Clara the lead it had relinquished five minutes into the second half.

"I had confidence in my shot," Foster said following the contest. "I know I'm supposed to take the shot at the end of the game because that's what [my team is] looking for from me."

After being lulled into doldrums by the team's poor second half performance, the Leavey Center was suddenly ecstatic.

However, within a minute USF was up by five again.

"When you have a lead you have to go down and get a stop," Broncos head coach Kerry Keating said following the game. "You got to be able to stop them on defense. We didn't do that."

Members of the crowd who had made the trip from San Francisco began chanting, "U-S-F, U-S-F!" It appeared that the Dons' superstar guard, sophomore Michael Williams, had put the Broncos away with less than a minute left to play.

In unison, the Santa Clara Ruff Rider section returned fire: "S-C-U, S-C-U!"

However, Santa Clara could not capitalize on the crowd's energy. Freshman guard Evan Roquemore tried to take over late in the game, but ended up burning time off the clock before missing a contested shot.

Once again, the Broncos failed to deliver late in a game.

Early in the 206th meeting between the Bay Area rivals, Santa Clara looked like they were going to humiliate the University of San Francisco.

Santa Clara went up 9-0 two minutes into the game following three pointers from Foster and sophomore guard Ray Cowels.

By the 11:50 mark they were up by 11 and at halftime they were up 35-24.

"We got complacent, didn't communicate in transition, didn't rebound well enough, let them get comfortable, [and] pressed the issue a little bit," Keating said. "We couldn't find anyone who could get the ball inside to get a post touch or get to the free-throw line."

The silver lining in the game was Kevin Foster, who thrived in front of a big crowd.

Foster's eight threes tied the school record shared by Steve Nash at Gonzaga on January 19, 1995, and Mitch Buley against Nevada on December 14, 1988. His 20 attempted three-pointers broke the school record set by Buley in the same contest.

"Nothing matters individually if we don't win," Foster said. "The whole team needs to make stops, it's not just a single person.

"We played very complacent to start the second half. They scored 24 points in the first half and 50 in the second half—you can't win letting teams do that."

Unfortunately, Foster has had limited opportunity to play in front of a sellout crowd.

Despite Keating's efforts to schedule big-name programs like Rice, UC-Santa Barbara and Washington State, Santa Clara's average home attendance of 1,706 is nearly 700 less than the league average of 2,437; the Leavy Center seats 4,500, meaning the arena is usually at 37.9 percent capacity for home games.

The Broncos were content to lean on their three-point shooting throughout the game; their 37 three-point attempts set a facility record.

"You can't win a game shooting 37 threes against a three-possession zone the whole game," Keating said. "It's not like they were in a zone and we had to shoot from the outside."

Santa Clara was 9-of-32 from the field in the second half and finished the game at 35.6 percent. They were 13-21 from the line and were out-rebounded, 44-34.

Conversely, the Dons shot 47.1 percent and got to the line 35 times, converting 21 of their free throws (60.0 percent).

Roquemore and Foster struggled to get the ball to junior forward Marc Trasolini, the team's strongest player inside the paint. Trasolini only had eight field goal attmpts and connected on half of them. He finished the night with 11 points.

"We need to get some inside presence and just because [sophomore forward] Chris [Cunningham] is out doesn't mean that the whole thing is out the window," said Keating. "Marc, Ben (Dowdell), Niyi (Harrison) and John (McArthur) need to be ready to step up and give us some inside presence."

Cunningham missed the game for currently unknown reasons.

Santa Clara travels to San Diego and St. Mary's before facing Gonzaga at home on January 20. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

Credit to The Santa Clara staff for editing the story.

After routing Bethany University 87-57 in the Leavey Center on Monday, the Broncos shift their focus to their West Coast Conference opener against the University of San Francisco on Saturday, Jan. 8. Santa Clara will open up conference play with a 9-7 record in non-conference play.

"We had opportunities to do better," Bronco head coach Kerry Keating said in regards to his non-conference schedule, "but I think, for the most part, we did well—obviously well enough to have a winning record."

Since replacing Dick Davey—the man who coached the Steve Nash-led Broncos to their last NCAA tournament appearance in 1996—four years ago, Keating has yet to have a winning season. He had his best year during the 2008-09 season, when his team went 16-17 (7-7 in WCC).

This season, his team has shown promise against elite opponents.

Santa Clara defeated Arsalan Kazemi and the Rice Owls on Mission Campus at the buzzer, 66-65. They led the University of Southern California 50-47 at half and took Washington State to overtime, but lost both contests.

"It's unfortunate. We've had leads and chances to close out games, but we didn't," said Keating. "It's good to be going into conference on a winning note. That's the most important thing."

Last year they beat the Dons in San Francisco 66-65, but lost to them at home 71-68 in overtime. USF is currently sixth in the West Coast Conference at 6-9 overall and Santa Clara is fourth at 9-7.

San Francisco pulled off an early-season upset over Colorado (10-4), 83-81 in overtime, but has struggled against elite programs since. They were suffocated by Louisville, 61-35, and rolled by Washington, 80-52.

The USF offense revolves around sophomore guard Michael Williams, who has 16.1 points per game. Only Pepperdine's Keion Bell (20.7) and Santa Clara's Kevin Foster (18.4) have a better average in the WCC.

"Anytime we play it's going to be a hard-fought game. Historically it's been that way," said Keating, who is 4-2 against the Dons. "Obviously anytime we play it's going to be a war, so I expect nothing less on Saturday."

Saint Mary's currently sits atop the WCC with a 12-2 overall record. The conference's most potent offense (83.9 ppg) is led by senior guard Mickey McConnell (14.2), redshirt junior Rob Jones (13.7) and sophomore guard Michael Dellavedova (13.0).

On the other end of the court, freshman guard Stephen Holt is second in the WCC with 28 steals.

Joining the Gaels on the conference summit is Portland (12-3), a sharpshooting team that is 44.4 percent from beyond the arc. Junior guard Nemanja Mitrovic is shooting above 50 percent from the arc and leading scorer Jared Stohl (14.1 ppg), a senior guard, is just south of that mark, shooting 45.6 percent.

The Pilots, however, may be a façade. Saint Mary's has a plus-22.4 scoring margin and the Pilots, who have a lower scoring margin (plus-3.2), have played an easier schedule.

The Gaels defeated St. John's 76-71, overwhelmed Texas Tech 88-68, lost to No. 14 BYU 73-74 and were snuffed by No. 6 San Diego State, 55-69.

On the other hand, the Pilots' only notable opponents have been Kentucky (L, 79-48), Washington State (L, 84-68), and Washington (L, 94-72)—also their only three losses. 

The Pilots have wins over Boise State (88-79), Nevada (66-62) and Utah (88-79); however, while Boise State is 9-5, none of those teams are as prominent as their gridiron counterparts.

Gonzaga is in jeopardy of relinquishing their hold over the conference this season. Since 1999 the Bulldogs have won the WCC tournament in all but three years. In the three years that another team took the title, the Zags were in the championship game.

However, this year Gonzaga's scoring margin is roughly half of Saint Mary's, plus-10.9, and the team is third in the conference with a 10-5 record.

Gonzaga has played a more difficult schedule—losing games to No. 6 San Diego State (79-76), No. 17 Kansas State (81-64), No. 20 Illinois (73-61), Washington State (81-59) and No. 15 Notre Dame (83-79)—than any other team in the WCC and has beat distinguished programs like Marquette (66-63), Baylor (68-64), Xavier (64-54) and Wake Forest (73-63).

The Zags are led by senior guard Stephen Gray (14.2 ppg, 20 steals), redshirt junior Robert Sacre (12.9 ppg) and sophomore forward Elias Harris (11.4 ppg).

Both Saint Mary's and Gonzaga have received votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll.

Loyola Marymount had high expectations coming into the season. Oregon transfer Drew Viney (16.0 ppg), a redshirt junior, was supposed to bring the program back to the glory days preceding the death of Hank Gathers. However, the team is off to a 7-6 start.

Senior guard Vernon Teel has produced 14.2 ppg and leads the conference with 29 steals, but the team lost the two games they played against distinguished opponents, UC Santa Barbara (67-77) and Florida State (63-74).

Pepperdine and San Diego sit in the WCC cellar at 6-11 and 3-11, respectively.

Santa Clara opens its WCC schedule against San Francisco on Saturday at 8 p.m.

Credit to The Santa Clara staff for editing the story.

UAB, 1-0, travels to Tucson, Ariz., to play in the first round of the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament vs. Santa Clara, 1-0, on Mon., Nov. 17 at 7 pm.

Opening

The Blazers opened the season by beating Troy on Saturday 87-66. Paul Delaney led all scorers with 24 points, hitting nine of 11 from the free throw line. Lawrence Kinnard added 22 points and 13 rebounds. UAB now has their sights set on the NIT Tournament.

UAB opens up first round play vs. Santa Clara out of the WCC, who last year made it to the semifinals of the WCC, losing to Gonzaga by four.  This year Santa Clara won their first game over Cal State East Bay 68-40. Senior John Bryant had his 25th double-double of his career with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

History

UAB has met Santa Clara two times before. The last meeting came in Birmingham in 1994, where SCU won 80-65 in the Blazer Classic. The other meeting was in 1991 in the Cable Car Classic, where the Blazers won.

Probable Starting Lineups

Blazers

Paul Delaney G

Lawrence Kinnard F

Robert Vaden G

Channing Toney G

Aaron Johnson G

Broncos

John Bryant C

James Rahon G

Michael Santos G

Perry Petty G

Ben Dowdell F

The winner of this game will advance to the second round of the NIT Tip-off and face the winner of Arizona/Florida Atlantic, while the loser will also face the loser of that game. Winners play at 10:30 on ESPN 2, and the losers play at 7:30.

In a non-conference game, the Santa Clara women’s basketball team fell 96-74 to No. 6 Stanford at the Leavy Center.  With the loss, the Broncos fall to 16-6 overall.

It looked like it might be a long night for the Broncos with the news that they will be without their leading scorer Chandice Cronk due to a career-ending knee injury; she could go into surgery as early as next Tuesday, said Head Coach Michelle Bento-Jackson.

"Obviously it was tough the last 24 hours," Bento-Jackson said. "We got the news last night after practice. Our hearts go out to Chandice."

Cronk tore her ACL and her MCL as well as fractured her leg when her leg buckled going up for a layup in the 88-52 lost to Gonzaga last Saturday.

Gottschalk opened the game with a free throw, which turned out to be the Broncos’ only lead in the game as Stanford dominated the entire game. 

Gottschalk finished the game with 14 points, five rebounds, and four assist.

Stanford star and reigning Pac-10 player of the week, Candice Wiggins quickly followed suit with a shot from downtown for the game’s first and only lead change.

Wiggins, arguably the best female basketball player in the country, finished the game with 20 points, two rebounds, and two assists.

“We saw this game as an opportunity and a challenge,” Wiggins said.  “They (Santa Clara) have threats from all positions.”

The Cardinals (20-3) extended their winning streak to eight straight games and displayed why they are No. 6 in the nation. They were able to go on a 22-6 run with less than seven minutes left in the first half to extend their 47-25 lead.

Turnovers and fouls didn’t help the Broncos’ cause, with the Cardinals scoring 12 points off turnovers in the first half.

Bronco guard Tracey Walker picked up her third foul of the game at just 13 minutes in and sat on the bench for the rest of the half.

However, Walker scored 17 of her game-leading 23 points in the second half; Walker's second half performance was the lone bright spot in the Broncos'  loss.

“I was upset in the first half with those three fouls,” said Walker.  “I just got back at them in the second.”

Santa Clara tried to close out the first half strong, going on a 11-6 run in the last two minutes that was highlighted with five points from Gottschalk to cut down the Cardinals’ lead to 56-38 as both teams headed to their respective locker room.

Broncos’ Maggie Goldenberger, who replaced Cronk in the lineup, opened the second stanza with a deep two but Cardinals’ JJ Hones scored from downtown on the ensuing possession to end any hope at a rally.

Hones finished the game with a career-high 20 points, one rebound, and three assists in 31 minutes of play.

The second half was eerily similar to the first.  The Broncos improved their defense and were able to force four turnovers in the first nine minutes of the second half, but with Gottschalk on the bench with four fouls, Santa Clara could not snag any rebounds. 

Stanford shot an impressive 62.1 percent from the field and shot a season-high 13 threes.

Santa Clara will next play St. Mary’s on the road on Saturday.  Tip-off is at 7 PM.

Santa Clara’s Chandice Cronk continued her quest for the records book when she led the Broncos to a 57-50 win over West Coast Conference foe San Francisco in a tightly contested game Saturday night at the Leavey Center.

Cronk entered the week with a SCU record 234 career three pointers and needed only three more to surpass former Pepperdine standout Damaris Hinojosa (1999-03) for first place in the WCC career three-pointer list.

The senior guard broke the record Thursday night against San Diego with four made threes and tonight verses USF she added three more.

“It’s awesome,” Cronk said being on No. 1 in the WCC for career three-pointers made.  “I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates for setting me up and putting up screens.”

The Alaska native finished the game with 15 points, three rebounds, one assist, two steals, and went 4-for-4 on the free throw line.

Bronco’s forward Jen Gottschalk had her eighth double-double of the season when she finished the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Both SCU and USF entered the game tied for second place in the WCC with a 3-1 record.  With the win, Santa Clara takes over sole possession of second place in the WCC with a 4-1 record behind Gonzaga, who has a perfect 5-0 in conference play.

With the win the Broncos now are 15-4 and are on a four-game winning streak after dropping their first conference game against St. Mary's.

SCU led by as much as 16 points in the second half, but the Dons was able to fight back and cut down the deficit to as low as two points.  USF never lead the game.

“They’re a good team and that’s what good teams do, come back,” said Cronk.  “But we stuck it out and did what we need to do.  We made big shots.”

San Francisco won the opening tip off, but Broncos’ Tracey Walker had the game’s first point on a layup at 17:55.

Fueled by Walker, the Broncos got out on fast start, scoring 10 straight points before the Dons finally registered their first basket of the game at 11:30 on a jumper by Dominique Carter.

Carter led all scorers with 21 points.

Santa Clara closed out the first half strong, going on a 13-6 run.  Bronco guard Cronk’s late three right before the halftime buzzer was her first points of the game and it extended Santa Clara’s lead to 29-16.

The Broncos held the Dons to just a 25.9 field goal percentage while shooting 46.4 percent from the floor in the first half.

SCU continues to have success from beyond the arc.  The No. 1 team in three-point field goal percentage shot 25 percent in the first half.

The Dons quickly regrouped in the second half and went on a 14-2 run to get right back into the game after Bronco’s Liz Doran opened the half with a three.

USF fans who made the commute began rallying behind their team when Necolia Simmons scored on a jumper to cut Santa Clara’s lead down to just four points with 11 minutes left in the game.

Bronco players just could not secure the rebound on the next San Francisco possession as the Dons gathered offensive rebounds and had three straight chances to cut the deficit to two points.

After a foul by USF’ Carter at 8:44, Bronco’s Gottschalk had a chance to build up Santa Clara’s lead once more on a pair of free throws, the Bronco’s first free throw attempt of the night, but was 1-for-2.

The game began picking up again as both teams traded basket, but Cronk’s three just under two minutes left in the game extended SCU’s lead to seven, a lead the Broncos never relinquish as they held on to win the game.

Santa Clara will hit the road and play Portland next Wednesday January 30th.